Chapter 1 I can hardly breathe. My chest hurts so much it’s difficult to take in air. The sweat mingles with the terror as I urge my limbs to cooperate. The fear overtakes my reasoning because I thought I was safe. I should be safe, but the fact that someone’s chasing me tells me otherwise.
 As I crash through the trees, I struggle to see the danger in front of me. As my foot catches a tree root, it twists from under me and causes a sharp pain to cut through my body like a knife. I can feel them gaining on me, but I will not give up. I need to reach safety; I should never have believed I was safe here.
I am such a fool. I thought I could hide, but the fear that surrounds me like a vise tells me otherwise. I will never be free of it all the time the nightmares crowd my mind. I just wanted time to deal with it but it appears my time has run out.
 I can hear him now. Gaining on me so fast I know I don’t stand a chance. It’s the acceptance of my fate that makes me stop and take a deep breath. Maybe it’s time to turn and face my fear head on and deal with it the only way I know how because I’m tired of running. Tired of being scared and tired of life. If he has come for me, I would welcome the darkness. Just to close my eyes and never wake up is looking mighty attractive right now, so I stand my ground and turn and face whatever’s behind me because it’s what’s in front of me I should be afraid of and nothing can be worse than that.
 I almost dare not look, but as I raise my eyes, I swallow hard. I think it’s a man stands a short distance away looking at me warily. I’ve never seen the like of him before and I stare in wonder at a beast that makes all other men look like kids. Wild dark hair touches his shoulders and his bare chest eclipses the sun. My heart flutters as I see the tattoo covering his biceps because that tells me he has every right to be here. 
 “You’re on private property, darlin’.”
 His voice growls as he states a simple fact I know only too well. It was why I sought them out, a place that everyone fears which keeps the rest of the world outside. 
So, I face him with indifference.
 “I know.”
 He moves slowly forward and my heart beats faster as a strange excitement grips me. What will he do?
 As he draws near, I see the sweat glistening on his tight abs and a smattering of dark hair that calls to the woman in me. He is magnificent and a world away from the men I usually keep the company of. Rough, feral and rugged - a real man. Not the suited and booted smooth criminals that usually occupy my world. This man is pure danger and yet as he moves closer and stares deep into my eyes, I step back in shock. I know those eyes. 
 He leans forward and his breath flutters across my face like a cooling breeze, fanning the flames of an interest that has no right being there. The dark eyes of the blackest shade penetrate my soul and makes my heart bleed because I know this man. There is no life in those eyes, just the tortured souls of the damned. An empty wretched soul that lost the ability to live and just exists in a tainted world of pain. A killer’s eyes. 
 I know those eyes because I see them in the mirror every day. We are the same - we are lost.
 “Then why are you here?”
 His voice is husky and with deep tones that take no shit, so I shrug. “I live here.”
 Without warning and with a flick of his wrist, he grabs me hard and spins me against the trunk of a tree and contains me in a prison of muscle that has no key. He is so close our sweat joins and trickles like a river of lust to the ground and I feel his mouth inches from mine causing my mind to scramble.
“Since when?”
 My first instinct is to try to struggle and free myself from his iron grip, but I feel strangely safe here. He keeps the whole world out and provides an impenetrable bubble that I could sure use right now. I am almost tempted to sag against him and cling on for grim death because I need that more than life itself at the moment but instead, I stare at him with a hard expression and say, “Since a month ago. I work for Ryder and Ashton; I help out with the kids.”
 At the mention of the man who rules this place with an iron fist should make him drop me like a hot coal, instead he leans even closer and growls, “Why should I believe you?”
 “Because it’s the truth. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to finish my run and grab a shower because I’m expected in just thirty minutes to help Ashton out with the kids.”
 He steps back and takes a long, lingering look, causing the blood to rush to every part of me that has a nerve ending. His hand holds me in position as he takes his time and I snap, “What’s the matter, haven’t you seen a woman before?”
 He smirks and I watch with interest as his eyes flash and I hold my breath. As moments go, this is the most interesting one of my life because I have never been treated like this before. The most interesting thing of all is that I am loving every minute of it and so, it’s with the icy bucket of disappointment that he releases me and says gruffly, “Then you won’t mind if I accompany you back. Call it your own personal protection.”
As he steps away, I long to pull him back and use him as a safety shield. Suddenly, the space between us is suffocating me because it proves that once again, I’m on my own. He doesn’t need to know that, so I shrug and start walking. “Suit yourself.”
 I start to jog and try to focus on anything but him. He settles in behind me and the only sound we can hear is of the twigs cracking under our feet as we head for home.
 The Rubicon. 
Home of the Twisted Reaper MC. 
A band of bikers who clean up the government’s pile of trash. Paid assassins who hide behind leather and steel and keep the world at arm’s length. Men that fight wars every day of the week as they struggle to keep the filth from the streets of America. I owe them my life because these men saved me from a certain painful death when they rescued me from the building where I was held captive and facing a painful end.
They brought me here to return home with my brother, but that was never an option. Nobody knows what I went through during the darkest days of my life and the secret I learned. The only solution was to hide and hope it goes away because the reality is not worth thinking about. I walked away from my family to hide in a place where tortured souls go to heal and up until now, I have kept away from everyone but the kids and the women. I’m not interested in the men; they scare the hell out of me and he is no exception.
We don’t speak all the way back. I try to empty my mind and forget he’s here because I need to pretend this is normal. I must build a new life for myself and this is the beginning of that process. There is no room for passengers on my journey, so my years of practice count as I slowly retreat into a shell I never really come out of.